A new Montana-based project with podcasts and documentary videos about Montana lands, waters and communities is now online. The project features stories from the heart of the Seeley-Swan Valley.
Spearheaded by Project Director and Montana Filmmaker Lara Tomov, the Life in the Land project features four documentary videos and 19 podcasts about four different regions across Montana: the Central Montana Plains, the Blackfeet Nation Amskapi Piikani, The Big Hole Valley and the Seeley-Swan region. The project explores the success and value of locally led initiatives and the unique perspectives of ranchers, community leaders, conservationists and tribal communities.
The Life in the Land project emerged in early 2021 when Tomov was introduced to what is informally known as the Montana Group- a diverse grassroots organization of agricultural producers, conservation professionals, natural resource managers and other Montana residents who wanted to share and advance the stories of collaborative community work in the state. Under her media brand Stories for Action, Tomov and the Montana Group co-designed a project dedicated to sharing these stories of human and community relationships with the land.
To start the project, Tomov said they made a list of different story ideas and geographical locations, then narrowed it down to the communities and people they wanted to explore.
“I was talking to folks all over the state,” Tomov said. “From ranchers to folks in the timber industry, to folks working with food sovereignty and indigenous communities. There are so many amazing things happening all over Montana, which is really inspiring to see.”
Tomov said they chose to include the Seeley-Swan Valley as a region partially because of its location, vast watershed and fire ecology.
“There are pressures that are specific to a forested ecosystem which we wanted to shed some light on,” Tomov said. “So elements of, you know, wildfire, impacts from climate change, just the geographical uniqueness of it, that it’s majority public lands, it’s nestled between two of the largest wilderness complexes and it’s such a major wildlife corridor for so many species, but then you also have these working communities that are intimately connected to the landscape.”
Working voices from the Seeley-Swan Valley featured in the Life in the Land project include Swan Valley Connections, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Forestry Division, the Clearwater Resource Council, Salish Cultural educators and Pyramid Mountain Lumber.
Pyramid Mountain Lumber is one of the oldest surviving lumber mills in Montana and the largest employer in Seeley Lake. As a very intrinsically collaborative company, Pyramid works closely with government agencies, tribal entities, conservation organizations and private landowners. Both Gordy Sanders, the Resource Manager of Pyramid Mountain Lumber, and Wendy Dalrymple, the Controller, are featured in the 30-minute documentary about the Seeley-Swan Valley.
“What’s really unique about this area is that we have every kind of interest that exists living and utilizing the Seeley Swan area. We’ve done all kinds of things, whether it’s recreational improvements, forest management for fuel reduction, or stand improvement,” Sanders said. “Without a lot of contention, locally, everyone is supported. It’s a perfect location to increase this concept of working together with folks.”
Tomov said this is a “pilot year” for the Life in the Land project and that she plans to continue updating the website with new videos and podcasts. In August 2022, Tomov and the Montana Group will begin producing two 15-minute films and four additional podcast episodes that will dig deeper into one specific community effort. New podcast episodes will go up in the Fall 2022 and additional films will come out in 2023.
Tomov said she’s excited to keep working on the project.
“We really need to recognize how much work is happening around the state and in the Seeley Swan region, specifically,” Tomov said. “It helps to really rally folks to find out how they can get involved in their local communities and ecosystems and have a part in dictating what happens on [the] Montana landscape is really powerful.”
To access the Life in the Land project videos and podcasts visit lifeintheland.org. Organizations and agencies are free to screen the films at gatherings or workshops. For impact measures, anyone who screens the film is encouraged to fill out a short form on the website with information about where it was screened.
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